Little Zoo Series: Rico's Hobby
by ponytail30527
Summary: Rico's got a new hobby, but what could it be? He's coming home with muddy shovels and Marshal thinks that it could be murder! My halloween special! Rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

**Part of little Zoo Series. I think I'll make it my Halloween special in a way too! Credit to Stargazer128 for the idea, KEEP ON ROCKING! Remember to read more from her too, she's already posted some!**

**I don't own the Penguins of Madagascar.**

"And that's the story about the time Manfredey and Johnson broke their flippers with a whoopee cushion." Skipper said closing the scrap book. "Well wasn't that a good story Marshal?" Skipper asked not looking up from the memory and picture congested scrap book. He frowned when he didn't answer. "Marshal?" he looked up and saw his son snoring away. "MARSHAL!"

Marshal's blue eyes popped open. "Who, what, when, Whataburger!" he stammered as he woke up. He looked up at his not so happy dad. "Oh, hey dad." He said with a smile.

Skipper was going to give him a lecture on how listening to his stories will help him, but the door opened up before he could. The two turned around to see Rico waddling in looking really worn out. "Oh, evening Rico, what are you doing?" Skipper asked noticing the fact that he was covered in dirt. "I didn't authorize round zoo clean up."

Rico just shrugged and waddled off to clean up.

Skipper and Marshal looked at each other with suspicious faces as Rico waddled off. "What do you think he did?" Marshal whispered to his dad.

"I don't know." Skipper said rubbing the bottom on his beak, but I intend to find out."

**A few moments later. . . . . . . . **

"Covered in dirt? I'm pretty sure he was just blowing something up and it made a mess." Kowalski said trying to focus on his inventions.

Marshal gasped. "Or _someone_!"

Skipper rolled his eyes and shook his head at his son's comment. "Like Rico would kill anyone!" he said with a chuckle at the thought.

"Are you hearing yourself? I mean that could've been blood he was covered in and he's hiding the body in his stomach! I can't believe we didn't see it earlier, it was so obvious. It's like wondering who ate the cookies and Santa's in the room." Marshal continued.

"Marshal, keep you cuckoo ideas out of this mess!" Skipper said.

"Fine" he said shaking his head. Then he put his flippers up next to his eyes in a spooky way. "But I guess we'll have to wait till he strikes again. Muwahahaha!" he said before running off in the other direction. "Bye! I'm gonna play over at the otter habitat!" he said in his normal tone before he went out the door.

"I think that he's getting into too much of those horror films." Skipper said.

"No duh." Kowalski said tightening another bolt on the machine.

Just then a scream echoed the H.Q.

"Marshal!" Skipper called out in a worried tone. He and Kowalski jumped up on the top of the H.Q. in their fighting stances and Marshal ran up to them. Skipper leaned down to his panting son. "What is it son, Blowhole, space squids, Alice dancing?" he asked wondering if he was going to be scared for life.

Marshal shook his head. "A shovel, a dirty muddy shovel!" he explained. He led the two over to a muddy shovel like he said on the side of the H.Q.. It looked like a sand castle shovel that was green, but you couldn't tell that will with all the mud on it, or at least they thought it was mud. "See? I was right! Uncle Rico's a murderer!" he exclaimed shaking all over. "We must stop him before he kills again!" he said getting overly dramatic again.

"Let's not rush to conclusions." Skipper said.

"I don't know Skipper, I don't like the way this looks." Kowalski said examining the shovel. "I mean, it's better to be safe than sor-"

Just then a splash came out from behind him and the three turned around to see a water covered Rico.

"Oh hey Rico" Skipper said. He picked up the small shovel and held it out to him. "Is this yours?"

"Uh-hu" Rico grunted out. He held out his flipper for the shovel and Skipper gave it to him and watched him swallow it whole.

"Who's next?" Marshal whispered, but Skipper placed his flipper over his beak.

Rico cocked his head to the side confused. "Huh?"

"It's nothing solider." Skipper said waving his flipper in front of him and keeping Marshal's mouth shut. "Now return to your business whatever it may be." He said with a small amount of suspicion in his voice as he eyed Rico. After the explosive expert left, he let go of Marshal's beak.

"What was that for?" Marshal asked rubbing his flippers against his tongue. "I don't like the _taste_ of your flippers."

"If it keeps you quiet around a murder, then you better get used to it Marshal!" Skipper said. He got a worried look on his face_. Could one of my soldiers, a fellow brother in black and white, a friend, really be a crazed killer? I'm used to Rico being a world class psychopath already, but not a murder. _He thought to himself. He shook his head sadly. "I don't like it."

"It's a shock to all of us Sir." Kowalski said patting his commanding officer on the back. "Then again, this could all be just one great big misunderstanding."

"Or, we're all in great danger." Marshal said. "Either way, this is pretty cool."

Skipper glared at Marshal, and then turned to Kowalski. "Kowalski, I want you to keep a visual aid on Rico." He ordered.

"Me?" Kowalski asked pointing to himself.

"Yes you, I want to know the truth and I want it now!" Skipper said.

**Later that day. . . . . . .**

Kowalski walked around the H.Q. nervous. _How can I get Rico to tell me if he's a murderer or not? There's a 98.7% chance he's deny it! Think Kowalski! _He thought to himself as he paced the H.Q. floor with his flippers behind his back and his head down thinking. He then looked up when he heard the door open and close and smiled at what might be the answer to his problems. "Hey Buttons, can we have a small talk, nephew to uncle maybe?" Kowalski said placing a flipper around his shoulder in a fatherly way.

Buttons cocked his head to the side confused. "Uh…okay" he grunted shrugging his shoulders as he sat down next to his Uncle Kowalski.

"So Buttons, have you and your dad been doing anything lately?" Kowalski asked trying to hide the fact that he was nervous. "Like a hobby or a new game perhaps?" _Or burying bodies! _He added in his head, but he wouldn't say that out loud.

Buttons looked up and tapped his beak trying to remember anything, but shook his head.

"Well has Rico been doing a new hobby lately?" Kowalski asked.

Buttons though again, and this time he nodded his head. "Yep"

Kowalski smiled realizing he was going somewhere with this. "Okay, what is it?" Kowalski asked nearly squeezing the young penguin from anxiousness.

Buttons blue eyes widened and pushed Kowalski's flippers away from him. "nu-uh!" he grunted quickly shaking his head from side to side and backing away from him. "Secret." He grunted out before running off somewhere showing that the conversation was defiantly over.

"Well, I guess that'll be all then." Kowalski said sadly letting the little penguin waddle away. Kowalski put his head in his flippers frustrated. "How am I supposed to figure this out if I can't even get anything out of his son?" he asked himself. "I mean, he's as clean as. No zoo animals are missing, not any that I know about anyways." He whispered, and then he got an idea. He sat up and picked up his abacus. "Well, it looks like it's time for a head count." He then waddled out the door.

**Doing a head count. . . . . . . . . . . . **

King Julien sat on his throne thinking. "No, no, no, no one is missing from my kingdom. You may take Mort away for the sacrifice since no one else has volunteered." King Julien said before tossing the mouse lemur to Kowalski. "He likes to be fed once a day, but even I forget that." He said with a laugh.

"Father, I don't think that is very nice." Prince J.J. said looking up at his dad.

King Julien looked up and shook his head. "J.J, J.J., J.J., to be a king, you have to be ruling, not giving, especially to the annoying lemurs who don't stop touching the royal feet!" he said pointing down at Mort, who just giggled in Kowalski's flippers.

"Why are you taking an attendance count? I thought we just had one a few days ago." Maurice said with Maurisa at his side. Kowalski could tell he was worried as he gripped his daughter's paw tighter.

"No need to worry, it's just a common head count. There's no danger." Kowalski explained setting Mort down below him. _Well, at least not yet. _Kowalski thought to himself. "Let's just say it has something to do with one of my teammates. If this head count is full, then this was just all a huge misunderstanding."

"But what if it isn't?" Maurisa asked cocking a brow.

Kowalski sighed and turned around. "Then it could mean something terrible." He said before jumping over the wall.

Kowalski's next stop was the otter habitat and both otters were there thankfully. "Thanks for cooperating Marlene." Kowalski said to the otter as she picked up around her cave. "I'm sorry for any inconvenience if I caused any."

"Yeah it's fine, but why are you taking a head count?" Marlene asked looking up at him now with a cocked brow. "I mean, I know you and Skipper are like the crazy paranoid protectors of the zoo and stuff, but I thought we _just _had a head count the other week." She said crossing her arms in a suspicious manner.

"Oh boy, mom doesn't do that unless she's onto you." Peanut said noticing his mom's pose.

"There's nothing to be on top of here Marlene. It's just a head count." Kowalski lied. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going over to the dolphin habitat." Kowalski turned around to leave, but Marlene stopped him by grabbing onto his flipper.

"Kowalski, I want to know what's going on." Marlene said in a calm tone.

**Dun, Dun, Dun! Rico, a murderer? What could this be? **

**Review and happy Halloween : )**


	2. Chapter 2

**Aw! I got a lot of nice reviews for the last story, so thankies! : )**

**Anyways, here's the next chapter! Muwhahahah!**

It took a lot of talking to finally get Marlene to let Kowalski go, but he could tell that she was still as suspicious as ever. Marlene usually got the whole classified lecture, but usually when it involved her, she'd get something out of them. She eyed Kowalski with crossed arms as he made his way out of her habitat and to the dolphin habitat.

Peanut walked up to his mom as she watched Kowalski leave. "Jeez mom, he might be telling the truth. Why is something always wrong when it comes to the penguins?" he asked looking up at her with his two big blue eyes.

"Peanut, there's two things that I've learned from living here. One, if the penguins are up to something, it usually backfires into a bigger problem. Two, don't _ever_ give a lemur a boom box as a welcoming present." She said before turning around and heading back inside to make dinner.

"Oh, I thought another lesson would've been the leader of a military penguins' group is a yummy, yummy, yummy." He said with a laugh, but then Marlene's paw popped out of the cave and grabbed his little ear. "Ow, ow, ow! I'm stopping! I'm stopping!" he said in pain as Marlene dragged him back inside by the ear.

Marlene chuckled and let go of his ear. "That's my boy."

Peanut covered his ears for protection. "You still love him." He said with a laugh, but when Marlene came for his ears again, he just ran away from her reach and kept them covered. "Ha, you can't catch me!" he said in a playful tone turning around once before dashing off and jumping into the water.

"Peanut!" Marlene said angrily, but she was laughing. She ran over to the water and jumped in after him.

**Later that night. . . . . . . . .**

Kowalski had to leave the head count early because it started to rain and lightning like crazy. When he returned home, he saw Athena pacing the floor worried about her dad in such a storm. She looked up and smiled at her dad when she heard the door open. "DAD!" she hollered out running to him and giving him a hug. "Oh dad, where were you? Do you know where Uncle Rico is?" she asked looking up at him with her flippers still around him.

Kowalski frowned. "Rico's not here?" he asked.

Athena took her flippers off of him and shook her head. "Nope, I thought he was with you. I haven't seen him all day. The last time I saw him, he was taking Buttons somewhere. They took a shovel, and a pack of something, but I didn't see what it was." She answered.

"Oh boy, where are the others?" Kowalski asked putting his flippers on her shoulders.

"They were playing stomp the wombat a few moments ago."

Kowalski nodded and gave his daughter a kiss on the head before running off to the side of the H.Q. where they usually played their games. When he got there, he saw Skipper, Marshal, Private, and Elli sitting down with a card on their foreheads. "Skipper, I wasn't able to complete the head count, but Rico and Buttons are gone!"

"What?" Skipper said looking up at Kowalski with his eyes that were under an ace. He ripped it off of his head and jumped up. "We've got to find them!" he exclaimed.

"Is this about Marshal accusing of Uncle Rico of being a killer?" Elli asked.

Skipper shot a look to Marshal. "Seriously Marshal, you can keep a secret if it involves one your pranks, but not when it involves your _life_?"

Marshal shrugged and ripped the eight of hearts on his head. "I can't warn my friends that there's a killer on the lose?" he asked as he removed the card off of his head. He looked down at his card that was previously on him. "What? I was so sure it was the eight of diamonds! That's just embarrassing!" he said tossing the card on the ground.

"Skippa, you can't believe that Rico's a killer!" Private said taking the nine of clovers off of his head. "I mean, he does keep dangerous weapons in his body all the time, and he likes to blow things up, and has that scar on his face…" he voice trailed off thinking. He gasped. "Oh dear!"

"See, it was so obvious! Like I said, Santa ate the cookies!" Marshal said jumping on his feet.

"Hey, don't accuse Santa of murdering! That'll get you on the naughty list!" Elli said angrily.

"Guys, I think I see them!" Athena, who had heard the conversation, said looking out the telescope. "And they're carrying something huge!"

"Let me see." Skipper said. Through the lens he could see Rico holding a bad and putting his flipper in front of his beak to Buttons showing him to stay quiet. The rain poured on the two, as they walked down next to the brick wall and he saw Buttons holding a shovel. He took his eyes off the lens with a scared look on his face. He faced Kowalski and Private. "Men, we've got to go after them." He ordered.

Athena, Marshal, and Elli jumped up and down. "What about us?"

Skipper shook his head. "What kind of parent would I be if I let you go on this dangerous mission with me?" he asked.

"Uh…a cool one!" Marshal said, but that didn't help. He got on his knees and begged. "Please! Please don't leave me here with just girls!" he pleaded.

"HEY!" the girls shouted offended.

Skipper rolled his eyes. "No Marshal, maybe when you fly." He said before he left with Private and Kowalski out the door.

"When I can fly eh? I can do that." Marshal said with his trouble grin forming on his face.

Athena and Elli closed their eyes. "Please don't say it involves us, please don't say it involves us." He changed holding each other's down feathered. When they opened their eyes, they saw Marshal facing them showing exactly what they feared. "No!" they shouted at the same time glaring before Marshal could say anything.

"You didn't even here what I said!" Marshal hollered.

"We don't have to; we already know it's going to backfire." Athena said.

"Okay, would you do it for your dad's sake?" Marshal asked looking at the girls now with a smirk.

Elli and Athena's brown eyes widened. "Fine!" the grumbled as they followed Marshal to the back and made their plan.

**Outside. . . . . . . . . . . . **

Skipper, Kowalski, and Private stayed very quiet as they followed the direction that they saw Rico and Buttons waddled down earlier. "Do you suppose Rico would hurt Buttons?" Private asked fearing for the little penguin's life.

"Please Private, Rico loves Buttons too much." Skipper said feeling the rain pour on top of him.

"Now him hurting _us _is a higher possibility." Kowalski said. The three continued to sneak down the wall; they stuck their head around the wall and didn't see anything. "Where is he?" Kowalski asked looking around in the rain.

"Blast, he's onto us!" Skipper said.

_Boom! _The thunder roared making the penguins jump.

Just then the three were knocked down. "Skippa, he found us!" Private hollered as something sat onto of the three. They were about to attack, but they noticed that the weight on top of them were three soaking penguins also known at Marshal, Athena, and Elli.

"KIDS!" they shouted getting up.

"Hey dad" The three said waving nervously at their dads.

"I strictly forbade you to go with us to this mission!" Skipper said crossing his flippers on his side looking at the kids harshly. "I expected this from Marshal, but not you two." He said looking at Athena and Elli.

"Well, you said if I flew that I could go. So, me and the girls here just shot ourselves out of our cannon back home and _flew _over here. We flew, so we stay." Marshal said.

Skipper's eyes widened.

"He's got you there Skipper; I guess you don't want to underestimate Marshal's plans." Kowalski said.

Skipper growled and shot a death glare at Kowalski. "Okay then, let's just take the kids to what could be a murder investigation! There's _nothing_ wrong with that! Absolutely nothing!" he said sarcastically.

"I call point!" Marshal called out running in front of them either not knowing or ignoring the sarcasm in his voice. He looked back at them. "Come on ya slow pokes! I wanna get there in time!" he hollered out shouting above the loud pouring of rain. Then he ran until he disappeared into the rain's mist.

"Marshal, no! It's too dangerous!" Skipper called out running after his son.

Kowalski sighed as Skipper disappeared into the rain. "You know, this is the mistake they make in all the scary movies. We have to stay together!" Kowalski said taking Athena's flipper as Private took Elli's and ran after the two. They continued to run until they saw Skipper and Marshal leaning down behind a small rock.

The two looked up and motioned them to sit down next to him. "Uncle Rico's burying something! This is awesome!" Marshal squeaked, but then Skipper placed his flipper over his beak again telling him to stay quiet. Marshal just mumbled as he looked back at the penguins they were watching.

Buttons handed his dad the shovel and Rico stood in a really deep hole. Both were covered in mud from the rain. Rico took it and began to take something out of the hole, but the penguins couldn't tell what it was. Then Buttons handed him a knife and Rico took it and cut the top of whatever it was.

"Oh my" Elli said feeling sick to her stomach. Kowalski covered Athena's and Private's eyes. Skipper let go of his son's beak from shock and shook his head from side to side disgusted as Buttons handed Rico a stick and he jammed it in the head shaped thing.

"It's so disgusting. Where's a camera? Aw, it's probably inside Rico!" Marshal moaned banging the rock.

Then Rico and Buttons turned their heads to the rock hearing the noise. The two explosive penguins exchanged glances and Rico mumbled Buttons to stay there before he waddled over to the rock with a protective look on his face for his son. "Grr…" he went curling the tips of his soaking wet flippers into fists. "Come here" he grunted out.

"Eep!" Elli squealed crouching behind the rock with her dad holding her.

Then Skipper popped out. "It's alright Rico, it's just me." He lied.

Marshal popped his head up offended. "What? You can't just take the glory. I don't think Ms. Marlene cares if you were brave enough to come on your own or not! I was here too you glory taker!" he said glaring at his dad. "I knew Santa ate the Cookies!"

"I was trying to save your tail feathers!" Skipper said glaring at him.

Marshal thought for a minute, then his eyes widened when he got it. "Ohhh! I wasn't here, my bad!" he said before crouching back behind the rock.

Rico stared at Skipper strangely. "Huh?"

"Listen Rico; let's not do anything we'll regret here. If that's ringtail then I might look away, oh who am I kidding? Murder is murder!" he yelled jumping in front of the rock ready to fight if he needed to. "And you're not doing it again!" he said.

Rico cocked his head to the side confused. "No, hobby." He grunted out.

"Well I wouldn't consider this a great hobby!" Skipper said.

Athena studied what she thought was the head of one of Rico's victims as Skipper continued to talk with Rico, but then she noticed something strangely familiar about its shape. Then it hit her. "Wait!" Athena said jumping over the rock.

"Athena!" Kowalski said, but she was already halfway to Buttons.

"Look, this isn't a head! It's a pumpkin! Uncle Rico and Buttons were growing our jack' o lantern for Halloween next week is all!" Athena said showing them the pumpkin sitting next to a small pile of pumpkin guts. "It's not a murder! I guess Rico didn't want to tell us because he wanted it to be a surprise!"

Rico shook his head. "Not manly" he grunted out.

"What do you mean?" Private asked. "I think that making a scary pumpkin's something I'm too scared to do!" he said shaking a bit at the memory of the scary jack' o lanterns he's seen before.

Just then the rain stopped and sun started to shine. When the penguins looked they saw the most beautiful garden they've ever seen. The vegetables seemed so colorful. The carrots looked good enough for any kids who hated vegetables to actually eat and the rain made the other pumpkins shine in the sun light. It was…they couldn't think of a word at the moment, because it was greater that beautiful. Kowalski came to Rico and patted his back. "It's explosive with color and beauty Rico." He said making the penguin smile.

That Halloween, the penguins had the scariest pumpkin ever, and it sure had a story to tell.

**Well, it's the end! I hope ya'll enjoyed it and HAPPY HALOWEEN! **

**Yay! Rico's not a murderer!**

**Bye!!!**


End file.
